Delhi High Court to hear CBI’s plea against discharge in excise policy case

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma will hear the matter shortly.

Hearing is yet to commence.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta is in the court for the hearing.

The case arose out of a report submitted by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, pointing to alleged procedural lapses in the formulation of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

The policy came into force in November 2021, but was scrapped in July 2022.

The report said “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” taken by Sisodia in his capacity as Excise Minister had resulted in “financial losses to the exchequer” estimated at more than Rs 580 crore.

In the last hearing, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued notice to all the accused persons in the case and also directed the trial court to defer ED’s money laundering case till it hears the CBI’s revision plea.

The CBI had submitted before the high court that the trial court dealt with ‘separate limbs of conspiracy in isolation’ by ‘selective reading of the prosecution case, disregarding the material showing culpability of the accused’.

It has further argued that the trial court has ‘given its own interpretation to various factual aspects and statements recorded by (CBI) and to documents attached,’ while discarding the approver statements on ‘absolutely untenable grounds’.

CBI also contended in its plea before the high court that the evidentiary value of statements, of both witnesses and approvers, is a subject matter of trial.

Noting that there ‘was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy’, a Delhi court on February 27 had discharged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal,Manish Sisodiaand others in the case.

The Judge, in several instances, slammed the CBI over its conduct, the nature of its investigation, and its presentation of evidence.

He described the investigation as a “pre-meditated and choreographed exercise, wherein roles appear to have been retrospectively assigned to suit a preconceived narrative”.

The Delhi High Court had earlier observed that the trial court’s remarks on the CBI’s investigating officer in the excise policy case were prima facie foundationally misconceived and it stayed the trial court’s observations made against the investigating officer including the direction recommending departmental action against him.

“This Court takes note of the fact that such scathing remarks recorded in the impugned order, and the reasons given for passing such remarks including, concluding that the investigating officer has abused his official position to conduct unfair investigation, are prima facie foundationally misconceived especially when made at the stage of charge itself,” the order read.

On March 11, Kejriwal and other AAP leaders had written to the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court seeking a transfer of the case.

They cited “grave, bona fide, and reasonable apprehension that the matter may not receive a hearing marked by impartiality and neutrality” before Justice Sharma.

Yesterday, Kejriwal had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s rejection of his plea to transfer the hearing from the bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

Delhi High Court's Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya noted in the communication: “The petition is assigned to the Hon’ble judge as per the current roster.

Any call of recusal has to be taken by the Hon’ble judge.

I, however, do not find any reason to transfer the petition by passing an order on the administrative side.”
The Delhi High Court will resume hearing of the revision plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the discharge order passed in favour of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in the excise policy case.